Now and Then
by marauder321
Summary: It's Christmas 1982 and although most families are rejoicing in the fact that Voldemort has finally been beaten it couldn't be more different for the Marauders. This is their Christmas.
1. Remus

Remus Lupin lay in bed awake. He knew it was Christmas but he wasn't sure if he wanted to get up. It was the first Christmas he'd spent away from home and he wasn't sure what to expect. Would Christmas at the Potters be the same as it was at home or would the house be completely full of friends and family, or perhaps it would be completely empty apart from the Marauders and James' mum and dad. Would they open their presents as soon as they got up or would they wait until the afternoon? Would they have Christmas lunch or Christmas dinner? Would they go to a party or- "Oi!" Remus shouted sitting up in bed and wiping the water out of his eyes. He glared at James and Sirius who were now doubled over laughing with identical water pistols on the floor by their sides, "What was that for?" he demanded, looking from one to the other, "Sorry mate," said Sirius hiccuping from laughing to much, "but it's eight O'clock on _Christmas day_ and you were still asleep, I mean who stays asleep 'till eight on _Christmas_"  
"Hmm, let me think." said Remus sarcastically, "Oh, _I_ know! It's me!" James and Sirius rolled their eyes at this before proceeding to drag him out into the hallway. Remus tried to protest, saying that he ought to get dressed first but they just ignored him and continued to drag him to Peters room, presumably to wake him up in the same way.

Soon they were downstairs with Mr and Mrs Potter opening their presents. They spent most of the morning trying them out before going to visit James' Grandma and Grandpa who lived about and hour away for lunch and presents for James from everyone on that side of the family. Lunch was nothing special but it was nice all the same. There was pre-sliced turkey from the super market as well as potatoes and brussel sprouts which James' uncle Charlie kept offering to Mr Potter, knowing that they were his least favourite food. After they'd finished lunch James' Grandma and Grandpa took them to the rubber duck race that the village had every Christmas. They all bought a rubber duck and hoped that they would win. None of them did though and the prize went to duck number eighty nine. By three O'clock they were ready to go and they all got into the car talking about everything from the food to (in Sirius' case) the fact that the people around here must really be mad if they have a rubber duck race. At this comment James just shrugged and said, "It attracts American tourists." Sirius gave him a strange look, "Why American in particular?" instead of James Remus answered,  
"I don't know, they just seem to like these kind of things. I mean, I was reading in a muggle newspaper about how the national Pooh Sticks championships were almost cancelled-" he was cut off by Sirius' shout, "What! They were going to cancel the national Pooh sticks championships! I snuck out on my dads broom to see them when I was nine! This is an outrage!" Remus rolled his eyes, that was just like Sirius, sneaking off to do things on someone else's broom.

Once they were back at James' Grandma and Grandpa's house they all got into James' mum and dad's car to go back to James' house. Except this time they took his Grandma and Grandpa with them so that they could join in with the party that seemed to have already started by the time they got there. Apparently one of James' aunts had let herself in using the key hidden in the fake stone in the garden and they'd thought they might as well just start. The four Marauders spent most of the time they were there hanging around with some of James' cousins who had come down from Scotland but they also had a great dinner that had been cooked by James' dad who was one of the best cooks Remus knew.

The day ended all to soon and as he lay in bed Remus knew that he wanted to spend every Christmas like this.

***  
Remus sighed at the memory, that had been the best Christmas he had ever had, his friends knew what he was and accepted it, he had got the chance to spend it with the Potters and Sirius and Peter had come too meaning that the four of them spent it together, the full moon that had been on the twentieth had been completely driven from his mind and although it hadn't snowed they'd managed to have a great time.

It was almost the complete opposite of this Christmas which he thought was probably the worst of his life so far. It was the first Christmas he'd spent alone. James and Peter were dead and Sirius was in askaban for killing them. He got up out of the tattered armchair he had been sitting in and went to make himself a cup of tea, carefully maneuvering around the boxes of books that he had never got around to putting into bookshelves in the four years he had lived here and putting on the kettle in his tiny kitchen. He didn't have one of the nicest houses in the world, or indeed, on his street, but he supposed he was lucky to have a house at all; money was hard to come by if you were a werewolf. It was the bottom of three floors in an old Victorian house. The person who had bought it had only needed two so she'd sold the bottom one for use as a flat. This arrangement worked out quite well since as the house was built on a hill the front door lead onto the first floor while the back door was on the ground floor so that neither of them would have to walk through the other's house so as to get in or out of their own. It was just as well because he wasn't sure what Mrs Smith upstairs would think of his monthly trips to the shed at the bottom of the garden which he would lock himself in and not come out until the sun came up.

He finished making the cup of tea and went into the sitting room to drink it, setting it down on the table and lighting the fire. The fire and the tea seemed to give the draughty room a bit more warmth but it still lacked Christmas spirit. The tree by the window had been decorated as well as was possible with the few decorations he had and there was tinsel hanging from the mantle piece, sparkling with the reflection of the twinkling Christmas tree lights. The little gold bell with the model wolf on top that he always took out at Christmas was sitting in the middle of the table reminding him of his childhood when one of his favourite things to do at Christmas was ring it and listen to the beautiful jingling sound it made. The room was everything it should be at christmas but still there was something missing, something that made Christmas the wonderful time that it was: friends and family.

Remus wondered what harry was doing this Christmas, he wondered if he was enjoying himself and whether his aunt and uncle that he had been sent to stay with were treating him well. From what Lily used to say about her sister he had his doubts but he pushed them away knowing that if he thought that James' son was being mistreated would just make him even more miserable. After all, Petunia was an adult now, she had probably got over her silly jealousy of Lily for getting to go to Hogwarts, and even if she hadn't, it was unlikely she would mistreat a child because of it, that would just be completely immature. Harry would most likely be ripping open presents and having a wonderful time, perhaps he'd got the Thomas the tank engine jigsaw puzzle he'd sent him. Remus wondered if he was enjoying it and if he had started trying to do it. He wished that he could be there to see him and help him open his presents but Dumbledore had forbidden anyone from visiting Harry without permission, and anyway, Remus had no idea were the boy lived.

Suddenly something came flying towards the window, stopping just in time to prevent a crash. Remus went up to let the owl in hoping it would be quick because the open window was making it rather cold inside. The owl was unlike any he had ever seen, it was huge and it's whole body was pitch black, including the beak. It swooped in and dropped a parcel on the sofa before flying right back out the window which Remus quickly closed behind it.

Remus turned back towards the sofa and picked up the parcel, examining it. It was wrapped in a rough brown paper and had an envelope taped onto it. He pulled the envelope off and turned it over to look at the other side. What he saw gave him quite a shock, in bright red letters surrounded by a similarly bright red box was stamped:

ASKABAN:  
Searched and approved

He stared at it, unsure whether opening it would be a good idea. After a minute or so he decided that it was unlikely to be dangerous if it had been searched and opened it. Inside were three wooden Christmas tree decorations; one the shape of a dog, one the shape of a wolf and one the shape of a stag. The rat was missing. There was supposed to be a rat, why wasn't it there? He puzzled over this for a minute or so before finally deciding that it must just be a coincidence, after all, no one knew about the Marauders being animagi except the Marauders themselves. Yes, it was probably a coincidence, that's all. He dumped the ornaments down beside him and turned his attention to the envelope, it looked much like the Hogwarts letter he had got when he turned eleven except it didn't have a seal. He opened it up to find a Christmas card depicting a forest that was covered in snow. He opened to card and read: To Moony, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, Padfoot. He closed the card, crumpling it slightly as he did so. Sirius Black, the man that'd killed his three best friends felt that he could send him a Christmas card! He walked over to the fire, ripping the card into as many pieces as he could while he did so. Once he got to the fire he dropped the pieces into it, watching them catch fire and curl up with the heat. Sirius had no business sending him a card, they were no longer friends. Remus turned back towards the sofa, planning on throwing the present into the fire too but decided not to. Even if Sirius had given it too him, he might as well keep them.

He sat down again and thought, he may as well open the only other present he had got, the one from his mum and dad. This one had been wrapped in tissue paper and looked much nicer that the one from Sirius, he ripped it open and found that it contained a book on defence against the dark arts and a calendar with a different scene from somewhere in Britain for each month, this reminded him of something, he really ought to check when the next full moon would be. He went into the bedroom and picked up the piece of paper that he had scribbled down the dates of the full moon on at the beginning of the year, the next one was on the thirtieth, making it a blue moon. That's just great, he thought sarcastically. Another reason that this christmas would be the worst christmas ever.


	2. Peter

The first thing Peter Pettigrew thought as he woke up was that it was Christmas, and Christmas meant presents. He sat up in bed and saw that the stocking that he had hung from the end of it last night was full of presents. He smiled, his favourite thing about Christmas was the presents and from the looks of things he had got a lot of them this year. He got up out of bed and went to wake up Sirius and James, only to see that their beds were empty, they must have already got up. He unhooked the stocking from his bed and took it down to the common room were his two friends were toasting marshmallows over the fire. "Were did you get them?" he asked, not really caring as long as he could get one, James turned round in his seat so that he was looking over the back and could see Peter, "The kitchens, we went down after we unwrapped our presents. Do you want one?" Peter nodded and started to walk towards the fire only to have James toss them at him. He only just caught them and sent James a glare for not warning him that he was going to throw them. James shrugged and turned back towards the fire were Sirius had somehow managed to get three marshmallows on his fork and had thrust them right into the middle of the fire. Peter, eager to toast some of his own marshmallows quickly went up to the fire and stuck a marshmallow on a fork which he held near the edge of the fire for a few seconds before taking it out just as the marshmallow started to burn. Sirius looked at it and snorted, "You thing that's toasting a marshmallow? Watch, I'll show you how it's really done." and with that he stuck his hand into the bag taking out another couple of marshmallows to toast and thrust them right into the middle of the fire, not taking them out until the were on fire. He then blew out he flaming marshmallows and popped them in his mouth, "That is how you toast a marshmallow!" James nodded in agreement,  
"Yup, that's one way, but to do it properly you really need dragons." Peter stared at him as if he was crazy and nodded slowly, "oookaaay..."

Soon breakfast had been eaten, presents had been opened and the Slytherin's common room had been transfigured into a perfect copy of the Gryfindore one, as well as their robes being changed so that instead of the plain black of school uniform they were flashing scarlet and gold. The Marauders thought that after all that 'work' they ought to go out into the snow and have a snowball fight. It was the first white Christmas in ages and they thought that they had better make sure that anything that could be done in this snow, was done. Well, that is, everything that they thought was cool.

They built walls out of the snow, they piled it up against the gate so that no one could get in and soon started a snowball fight with the Ravenclaws who they felt were the worst house after Slytherin because, in their own words, "you must be crazy to actually study enough to be that good in school." They still didn't mind the Ravenclaws though, they just felt the Hufflepuffs were better and less deserving of being beaten in the biggest snowball fight of the year. The snowball fight, although it had started out quite small, soon contained most of the people who had stayed at school for the holidays. Most of the Slytherins sided with Ravenclaw because they had no intention of doing anything that involved cooperating with Griffindores. This of course meant that the Hufflepuffs sided with the Griffindores to make it fair and they had one half of the school having a snowball fight with the other.

A couple of hours later Peter jogged into the common room panting. He was soon followed by James and Sirius who hi-fived before collapsing into the chairs by the fire. "You got any idea who was winning?" asked Sirius, James shook his head,  
"Nah, no idea, wish McGonnagal didn't get us to stop though." Sirius nodded,  
"Yeah, I think it's time for lunch though, you coming"  
"Uh huh," mumbled James, "What about you, Pete?" Peter nodded and they all went down the stairs to the great hall for lunch.

Christmas lunch at Hogwarts was amazing. There was turkey, carrots, roast potato and several other things (including brussel sprouts, but no one touched them). They all tucked into the food, pulled crackers and argued over how you knew who got the things inside because James' family gave it to whoever got the biggest half of it and Peters family gave it to whoever the cracker had originally belonged to. James thought his way was better because it was more like a game but Peter thought his way was better because it meant everyone got something, a statement to which James rolled his eyes and proclaimed that he didn't understand why Peter was a Gryffindore rather than a Hufflepuff which Sirius agreed would be much more fitting.

Lunch was soon finished and Sirius, James and Peter all went up to the common room to plan pranks and try to work out what caused Remus to have to leave the castle once a month because they had long worked out that it wasn't, as he said, to visit his sick mother. They soon got bored of this though and turned to their Christmas presents, meaning to try them out.

Trying out Christmas presents was certainly a lot of fun. Most of their presents were kits for pranking people since most of their relatives had heard about their multiple pranks on the Slytherins and thought that they might like some more equipment. Needless to say, by the end of the day the Slytherins resembled purple slugs that were wearing bright pink robes covered in orange spots and Filch needed to clean up dungbombs in so many places that he had created a waiting list of things to clean up and people to yell at.

That Christmas was a great one for the Marauders, not such a great one for the staff and the Slytherins.

***

If it weren't for the fact he was a rat, Peter would have sighed at the memory. Unfortunately, in his present form he was incapable of doing many of the things that humans took for granted. He scurried along the street thinking of how it used to be. That had been one of his favourite Christmases, this was probably one of his least favourite. It wasn't exactly comfortable sleeping in the sewers and having to go everywhere as a rat. He knew it must be around Christmas because of the trees in people's windows and the lights that some people had hung up outside. He wished he could turn back into a human but unfortunately he was supposed to be dead and his being alive might cause some awkward questions. Being an illegal animagus was also unlikely to impress the minister for magic. He knew that he would most likely have to spend the rest of his life as a rat unless the dark lord came back to power and he really hoped that wouldn't happen.

He wished he hadn't become a death eater. He had been frightened when he became one. He had thought that it was the best option if he wanted to survive. Now he knew it was just cowardice and all it had done was doom him to a life as a rat.

He wished he hadn't told Voldemort were Lily and James were so that he could kill them. He wished Sirius would forgive him and be his friend again. He even wished that he could talk to Remus, he may have been a werewolf but he was still a friend. He wished he still had all his friends. He wished he had been brave like a proper Gryffindore.

He knew he had made the wrong choice. And now he was paying for it.

He mentally scolded himself. If there was one thing he had taught himself not to in all his time as a rat, it was not to dwell on wishes that had no chance of coming true. He tried to think of something he wanted that he actually had a chance of getting. He wanted somewhere warm to stay, that was simple enough. He ran off towards a house in the distance.

The house was definitely magic. From the way it was built it could only be held up by magic. There were chickens pecking around in the garden and he felt sure he could find a way in. He ran around the edge looking out for any holes. Eventually he found one and wriggled through it. He found himself in what seemed to be the sitting room of the house. The family was sitting around the christmas tree with their presents that they had presumably just opened. A little girl who looked like she was only one or two was using the shapes from a shape sorter to bang together and make a noise, a boy who looked only a little older than her was doing a jigsaw while two twins raced around on toy broomsticks. Their older brother who looked about six was slumped in an armchair looking incredibly bored and the two oldest children were playing a game of exploding snap. He saw the boy in the armchair look at him and scurried into the shadows. He saw the boy look around for a bit before looking at him again. He stood, petrified with fear, as the boy got out of the armchair and came towards him.

The boy got closer and closer and reached out a hand, grabbing him around the middle. He didn't squeal, not wanting to attract attention, but unfortunately the oldest boy looked round and saw him. The oldest boy came closer and took Peter from the other boy, this time holding him by the tail, it hurt. "Hey, mum," the boy said, "look what Percy's found!" His mum looked around, but before she could say anything the boy he had been play exploding snap with turned round and saw the rat he was holding, "Cool, Bill," he shouted, "a rat!" Their mum opened her mouth again to say something but this time it was Percy who cut her off, he suddenly started crying and shouted, "Bill! I want my mouse back"  
"It's not a mouse, it's a rat." said the boy that Peter still didn't know the name of. Bill glared at him, "Charlie! You'll just make it worse!" Charlie glared back at him,  
"Well why don't you just give him the rat back"  
"Don't be stupid!" shouted Bill, "It might have rabies or something!" Their mum came hurrying over and took the rat from Bill, "Percy," she said, "do you really want it. It's disgusting." Percy thought for a moment and then nodded, their mum sighed, "Okay, you can keep it, but we'll have to take it to that pet shop in diagon alley to make sure it's not got any diseases that it might pass onto one of us. Charlie, can you look after it for now. Get a shoe box to keep it in and put some hay in the bottom." Charlie nodded and took the rat from Bill so that he could take it up to his room.

Once he was in his room he pulled out a shoe box from under his bed and put the rat into it. He then took some scissors and used them to punch some holes in the lid. The rat was acting rather strangely, he thought, any normal rat would be scratching at the sides of the box, trying to get out, but this one just sat there as if it had understood everything they had said and knew that nothing bad was going to happen to it. He picked up the box and took it downstairs were he got some hay for the bottom of the box and took some scraps from the kitchen. He then sat the box on the counter and put in the hay, being careful not to put it all on top of the rat. He then put in the food for it to eat and put the lid back on.

Inside the box Peter ate the food, feeling much happier than he had a few minutes ago. Maybe this Christmas wouldn't be so bad after all.


	3. Sirius

Sirius Black sat awake in bed. It was christmas. He knew that christmas was supposed to be fun and you were supposed to enjoy it but he never did. Every christmas was the same. He would get up, go downstairs, his parents would shout at him to put on more formal clothes because they were going to some pure blood only party, he would go back upstairs, get changed and then go to the party which was always really boring. He never enjoyed christmas. In fact he usually dreaded it.

ﾠ

Eventually he got out of bed and got dressed, he put on formal dress robes, knowing that if he didn't he would just get shouted at, and went downstairs. The rest of his family was in the kitchen. Regulus was sitting eating breakfast wearing plain black robes while his parents discussed something in one corner. He was surprised at his brothers clothes, his parents wouldn't let him wear those kind of clothes to a party. Just then his parents looked round and saw him, "Go straight back upstairs and put on something less fancy!" shouted his dad, Sirius looked at him, confused, his dad sighed, "We're going to a meeting of some of the oldest pure blood family's there are so you're going to stay at your cousin's while we're there. Your aunt and uncle will be at the meeting too but Bellatrix and Andromeda are old enough to look after you." Sirius groaned. If there was one thing worse than spending christmas at a pure blood party it was spending christmas with his cousins. He went back upstairs anyway, meaning to spend as long as possible getting changed so that he wouldn't have to go so soon.

ﾠ

Once he was dressed Sirius flooed to his cousins house with Regulus and got out of the fireplace, not really caring about the dust that was covering his robes. His cousin Andromeda met him by the fire place, smiling. He stopped, wait, she was smiling? Why would she be smiling here, Andromeda was by far the best of his cousins and was against the idea that pure bloods were superior to half bloods and muggle borns so Sirius found it hard to believe that she was smiling in a house were she was the only one with those views. He decided to ask her, "Andromeda, why are you smiling?" she immediately stopped and adopted a falsely downcast expression, "Oh, no reason what so ever," she said trying her best to look upset, "It's just my wonderful sisters have chosen to leave me here all on my own; Bella's off doing something mysterious that she refuses to tell anyone about and sissy's gone somewhere with Lucius so I'll have to look after you all by myself." She sighed but Sirius knew she couldn't keep up the facade for much longer and just stood there looking at her, waiting for her to laugh. After a few minutes she did and they dragged Regulus along to open presents.

ﾠ

Opening presents was certainly better than normal. Yes, most of the presents were rubbish, but that was to be expected when you lived with people who thought that anything to do with the pure blooded-ness of your family must be wonderful. But the atmosphere was better, they actually talked about things other than who the next present was for (although almost everything they said was about how they had no idea why anyone would think they'd want any of this) and they joked about the various uses the presents could be put to (none of them were the intended use). Eventually Sirius got to the one that was from Andromeda. He knew it was going to be good because she was smiling in a way that clearly said that she thought he would like it but her parents would definitely not approve of it. His thoughts were confirmed when she whispered to him, "Open it quickly, before your brother gets back from the toilet." She paused before adding, "And it might be a good idea to hide it." Yep, definitely something her parents wouldn't approve of.

ﾠ

He grabbed the present, perhaps a little too excitedly, and ripped off the wrapping. Inside was a bag of dungbombs and a book of easy pranks to pull off. "Wow, Dromeda!" he breathed. Andromeda smiled, "I thought you might want to move onto something more fun than xxx."

Sirius laughed, "It's not my fault those pranks were terrible, my mum and dad wouldn't let me have any good pranking equipment." Andromeda laughed and Sirius got up and stuffed the two presents under some robes that had been given to him by his great aunt something-or-other and were already lying crumpled and abandoned on the floor. It was lucky he did because it was just then that Regulus came back into the room. His eyes scanned the scene before him. The eight year old Sirius had quickly straightened up and stood facing him, trying to look as innocent as possible while one foot slowly pushed a pile of robes further away from him and andromeda was sitting, surrounded by wrapping paper that was either dull brown or printed with family crests, laughing. He narrowed his eyes, trying to look menacing, and gave them a look that clearly said that if only he had proof that something had happened that their parents wouldn't approve of then they would know right away. Sirius stood there for a second watching his brother's actions, then, without warning, he started to laugh. Regulus had no idea what was so funny.

***

Sirius sat slumped against the wall of his cell in Askaban. The memory of that christmas did not cheer him up, although at one time he had thought it had been the best christmas ever. This fact was actually why he felt so miserable about it. Looking back, it was most certainly not what most people would think was a good christmas. The only reason he had ever thought of it as good was, that in comparison to the christmases before that, it was. He supposed that in a way this was good. If it weren't for how bad the memory made him feel, he wouldn't be able to remember it at all.

ﾠ

This, was his survival method, it was the thing that kept him sane. If he could find a way to make a good memory bad, he could keep it. Of course, the memory would no longer offer the comfort that it would have under normal circumstances but it still helped him remember. Remember that things had been better once.

ﾠ

He got up and sat on the small metal bed that you were expected to sleep on when you were in Askaban. It was uncomfortable and the blanket was to thin to offer much warmth but he wrapped it around himself anyway. He could hear screaming in the cell next to his. In fact, he could hear screaming pretty much everywhere. All along the corridor prisoners were screaming at the memories that the dementors brought back.

ﾠ

Sometimes the screaming would quieten for a moment and if he listened carefully he could here the calls of the gulls outside. He found this noise calming and at times like these he liked to curl up as a dog under the blanket and focus on nothing else. He would have liked to transform right now. But from the little sense of time he had left he knew that food hadn't come in a long time so if he did change whoever brought his food might see him that way.

ﾠ

He knew it was near to Christmas. Probably before it because no one had come to collect the presents they were allowed to send of to their family and friends on Christmas day. Searching around in the small bundle of clothes that was his belongings he found the neatly wrapped parcels he'd been looking for. There were four of them. One for each of his friends and one for himself. He had bought the one for himself as part of a tradition the Marauders had. Without fail, every christmas, they would have each bought a present for themselves.

ﾠ

He had been meaning to give these presents to his friends for christmas of the year Lily and James had been killed. Unfortunately he had never got the chance and they'd been lying neglected at the bottom of his case since. He carefully opened each of them, being careful not to tear the wrapping. He didn't know why he did it that way. Perhaps it was because they reminded him of a time when things had been better and so he didn't want to damage them. He put the wrapping down beside him on the bed and looked at the decorations that it had concealed. The dog, the stag, the wolf and the rat. He stared at the last one with distaste, clenching the fist of the hand that wasn't holding it. The rat had been for Peter, Peter who had killed Lily and James. He had been the last one anyone expected to betray them, but he had.

ﾠ

Somehow he didn't care if he damaged the present that had been meant for Peter. In fact, he wanted to. He stood up and threw the model rat at the wall. It hit against the door of his cell and fell to the floor with a clatter, still unharmed. He went to pick it up and throw it again, to try and break it this time. He took a step towards it but then looked back and changed his mind. He had something he wanted to do first. Walking back to the bed he collected the three remaining decorations and wrapped them up, this time only using one of the sheets of wrapping paper. This would be the first christmas present he sent since Lily and James' death.

ﾠ

He didn't understand why Peter had betrayed them. They had been good friends, right? What would make him want to go over to the dark side. Sure, they had sometimes laughed at some of the stupider things he said, but he just seemed to shrug it off and not care. They had left him out in some of their missions for the order, but that had been because he had been no good at defence against the dark arts in school and they were scared he might get himself killed. Thinking it over they were probably not the best friends you could have, but that was no reason for joining Lord Voldemort. Finding new friends, maybe, but not getting yourself mixed up in a plot to kill them. Sirius lay down on the bed, confused.

ﾠ

After half an hour or so the door to his cell opened. Outside was one of the few humans who worked in Askaban. Sirius recognised him as one of the aurors he had fought alongside with in the war. He was a good person. But this good person was sneering at him, mocking him for getting himself put in Askaban and the black, hooded robes that were worn by everyone who worked here made him look more like a death eater than someone who had fought against them. "Got any presents to send to your friends?" he asked, in a way that made it clear that he doubted he had any friends who weren't in Askaban as well. Sirius glared at him but picked up the present and handed it to him. "It's for Remus Lupin." He muttered, wanting this man to go away as soon as possible. The man on the other hand, had other ideas, "Oh, is it now?" he said, in a falsely sweet voice that was obviously sarcastic, "You know, it will be searched. I don't suppose you want to send a card as well?" Sirius, seeing the pile he had in his hand that was obviously meant for prisoners who were still sane enough to string together a coherent sentence to use, nodded, "I suppose, can you write it, to Moony, from Padfoot? That's for Remus to." The man nodded and scribbled it down in the card before stepping back outside the cell, locking the door behind him.

ﾠ

Sirius was left wondering if his present would ever get there.

* * *

A/N: If anyone is actually reading this, I've had this chapter written for ages but have only just got around to posting it. The next (and last) chapter will come: A. When some miricle causes me to have an idea of what's going to happen, or B. When I suddenly become very good at writing Lily/James romance scenes.


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